


Flowers in the dark

by Figgybonzai



Category: Romance novella
Genre: Cooking, F/M, Honestly I know nothing about the military (please don’t kill me), Many chapters, Occasional swearing, Sci-Fi, Slow Burn, eventual NSFW, lots of pop culture references...like lots, more tags added later, original recipes will be posted separately, real places-made up details
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2020-07-31 11:00:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20114017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Figgybonzai/pseuds/Figgybonzai
Summary: Unna has had a strange and rough life and a worse week. She just wants to get through the day and get home. Edi is not enjoying his first ever convention and is trying to make the most of it. Their meeting was a fluke, but now that they’re together things are going to get interesting.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Intro. It’s my first work please comment.

It was 7am and Unna wasn’t awake. It had been sixteen days since she’ed had a day off and this Friday was finally a Friday for her.

Normally Friday meant meeting with clients and finalizing orders for weekend events. Finishing bouquets in the morning and centerpieces in the afternoon was standard for the Florist, but in the heat of a Florida September no one was getting married and fancy parties were few and far between.

So here she was, working for the grounds department at a local hotel from sun up to sundown to make ends meet. The base pay wasn’t great but the large amount of overtime made up for it. Her supervisor sat at the front of the room, giving out assignments and rattling off events around the hotel to avoid. As Unna was considered a seasonal employee the majority of the grunt work fell to her. So for the past two weeks she had been dragging pots, plants, soil and mulch all around the property. She was averaging a half marathon a day and while the exercise was appreciated the constant walking was taking its toll.

“Alright everyone you have your assignments. Please remember that due to the group in house the lift elevators will be off limits today. Please give me a call if you run into any issues, I’ll be walking around later to assist everyone. Have a great day.” Evan said. He was a nice enough leader but had no concept for time management, pushing his team to go faster than was practical over the large property. That and his idea of ‘help’ was to watch you work and provide commentary, never getting his hands dirty.

_I’m really going to need a painkiller after this._ Unna thought with a sigh.

Sadly for her ‘painkiller’ didn’t mean something otc. Unna had undergone many _many_ surgeries in her past and while she had few noticeable scars showing outside of her long sleeves and above the collar of her shirt those hidden ones plagued her. After all these years they still ached and opioids had never done much for her anyway. Due to her long hours she hadn’t been able to do anything about the growing aches since the first of the month, but now Unna fully intended to head home tonight and put her blender to good use. With all this overtime she could afford something nice and there was a bottle of premium rum at her apartment that would be well appreciated today.

As Unna made her way to the shop she looked down her assignment list. Large palms for one of the restaurants, small flowering plants for beds on the front drive and mulch to four different areas around the property. She knew that she would only get help first thing this morning as everyone else on the team would disperse around property and not return till the end of the day. So although the palms were to be delivered to an indoor area (and thus offered a chance for air conditioning) she decided to get them out of the way first. She grabbed a hand cart from the garage and several bottles of water from the cooler. Due to not being able to use the lift elevators she would have to change her route. Instead of a few hundred yards in the underground, air conditioned service corridors she would have to walk them three quarters of a mile around the outer perimeter of the property and though it was still early the temperature was already above eighty degrees with humidity to match.

“Jorge, can you give me a hand with these please?” Unna asked one of the full timers. The palms were over eight feet tall and though not the heaviest thing she had lifted over the past few days they were the most awkward. The tall man helped her load the plants without a word (he rarely spoke even on a good day) and by the time the dozen palms were loaded the shop was empty and Unna was left to set out on her own.

There was a circular road around the property and the landscape shop was in almost the very back. Due to the group in house using almost every inch of available space the only way to reach the restaurant was to walk to the front of the property and enter in through the lobby and then through the interior courtyard to access the buffet through the back. There was the shorter route counter clockwise past the valet parking lot, or clockwise past the pool and self parking. The former was a narrow road that was nearly impassable over the last few days as most of the group was using valet. The latter had a hill towards the end but also came with the advantage of a wide sidewalk that kept her out of traffic for the entire walk.

Unna exited the shop, closing the roll up door behind her and looked down the access road. She preferred the shorter road and in between surges of arrivals and departures it was a breeze, but a single glance told her that, at least for her first run she would have to take the long way around if she didn’t want to get hit.

The first part of her walk was uneventful. Move out wasn’t until the next evening so the back of the property with the loading docks to the convention area was all but deserted. A small bonus was that in the morning nearly all of her route was in the shade. As she rounded the building the pool area came into view. A cabana area bumped out into the parking lot and marked the half way point. Just before that was a small cafe with a seating area and on the far side was the hill to the lobby. As the cafe area came into view Unna lifted her head from pushing the several hundred pound load to see who was there.

Though the hotel was busy and the convention entrance just beyond the low fence that delineated the seating area from the pool and start of the self parking area, there were few people sitting in the area. The military group had been in house for almost a week and the few people there had become familiar. There were two pairs of uniformed officers closer to the building; one reading papers and one drinking coffee and chatting quietly. A lone woman with three coffees and a fancy purse. A group of five in the middle with a large collection of bags and other free items from the vendor area. Then closest to her as she walked along the sidewalk was a lone man sitting with half a dozen black cases, his eyes glued to three laptops sitting on the table in front of him. This last one, who Unna had dubbed ‘Computer Guy’, had been there every day that week.

He seemed glued to the one chair next to an outlet and never seemed to move during the entire time that she had been on duty. CG was by far the oddest of the bunch. He appeared to have all his meals delivered to him by the cafe staff and though his badge granted him access to all of the elite and extra cost events he seemed to have no interest in any of them or anyone else. Unna had never seen a single other group attendee speak with the man and he rarely lifted his head from his screens. By far the one item that stood out the most was his outfits. CG looked to be in his early fifties and sported a new suit every day, the only indication that he actually stood up and walked around. Always impeccably dressed Unna suspected his shoes cost more than what she had made in the past month; that and he never took his jacket off.

This was the most disturbing thing. He was in Florida, in September, and in the afternoon the chair he sat in was in full sun. Though it oddly hadn’t rained in the past few days the afternoons averaged a heat index well in excess of one hundred degrees. Yet there he sat, barely even sweating, from morning till evening. The other aspect of this man that stood out was that, though he seemed to shun his fellow attendees, he had always been kind to Unna. The average guest barely acknowledged her in her green uniform unless they needed something. CG on the other hand seemed to genuinely interact with her. He took time every morning to greet her (rare) and stopped typing while she was there and would talk to her about various things like the news and weather.

Unna wore a name tag, but despite her best efforts she had never picked up CG’s real name. Even his coffee cup lacked a name and the name portion of his badge was constantly tucked under one computer or another. Today was no different. Here CG was, in his same chair, three computers in front of him and his six black cases sitting around his feet.

As Unna approached her cart began to rumble as it crossed a short section of brick walkway. While the rest of the guests either ignored her or shot her dirty looks for the loud interruption, CG looked up and turned toward her with a smile. Unna smiled back as she approached and parked the cart next to the fence so she could take a drink and talk to the man.

“Good morning Unna! Taking a forest for a walk?” CG said with a smile.

“Good morning to you. It might as well be, I can see through these about as well as through a forest.” Unna replied and took a long swig of cold water. “Up to anything interesting today? Attending the awards dinner tonight?”

”Nothing of note today, just more spreadsheets. As to the dinner tonight I won’t be attending. I have an early flight in the morning. I might even head back to the room early today, depending on the weather.” He replied as he looked up toward the sky.

”They are calling for rain this afternoon. You’ve had some decent weather the past few days but I suspect come four o’clock things are going to turn soggy.” Unna took another swig of water.

”Well, if I don’t see you it has been a pleasure. It’s not often I meet someone so charming.” CG extended his had over the fence for Unna to shake.

”Likewise. And if I don’t see you, safe journeys.” Unna took his hand and shook it heartily.

With that she started off again, leaving CG behind, his nose already buried in his computers before she rounded the curve flanking the cabanas. Though her conversation this morning was shorter than in previous days it was still better than ninety nine percent of her guest interactions. It had also lifted her mood. Her feet were already starting to ache and the small reprieve had helped to a degree.

That was until she finished rounding the corner and looked up the hill to scout her path. There, two thirds of the way up, was a large black SUV, backed into its space, with its back end hanging over nearly half the sidewalk. Wide as the sidewalk was her cart was nearly four feet wide. She would have to get very close to the obvious rental vehicle in order to stay on the sidewalk and not run off and into the mulch. With the grade she would also have to make the run in one shot, no stopping, or the sheer weight of the load would force her to stop and then back all the way down the hill in order to try again.

She glared at the SUV while she took the last swig of water from her bottle. _Fuck it_. She though and stuffed the empty bottle back into her pants pocket to refill once she got to the restaurant.

With determination and a loud grunt she set off up the hill. Half way up she steered as close to the edge of the walkway as possible, she rode the edge of the pavement for a few yards before she checked the other side to see how close she was to the black vehicle. She started when she saw just how close she was and in that moment tripped over something and pitched forward. As the cart and plants careened off the walkway and into the shrubs and mulch on the side of the path Unna followed; striking he chin against the bar of the cart, she banged one knee against the hard back edge while the other dragged along the concrete, tearing both skin and fabric along the way.

She lay there for a moment groaning in both pain and humiliation before she stirred. She looked around and found that oddly no one was around. With that she looked back at her feet to find what she had tripped over. There, sitting innocently in the middle of the walkway, was a shiny, mostly black sphere.

Unna straightened her glasses and gave the thing a death glare.

The sphere just sat there motionless, even on the steep grade. It had several lights on its surface and was about the size of a basket ball. She had chosen a cart with a higher wheel base but even then the bottom of the cart only rode five inches above the ground. That meant the ball would have had to come from behind her, as there was a hedge and wall to the right, the same side as the foot that had stepped on the item.

Reaching forward with a wince and a hiss she picked up the ball to study it. The ball was hard and amazingly light for its size, weighing only a few pounds. The surface was surprisingly smooth, covered with lights and a few lenses in various locations. Between the lights was a faint circuit board pattern and the whole thing was warm to the touch. Unna turned it in her hands and it didn’t seem to be hollow or have a heavier side that would have kept it in place on the relatively steep incline. Again Unna looked around. She had played with a BB8 toy and remembered that it had a heavier side that kept it upright and allowed it to move. As this thing didn’t she didn’t think that it was remote controlled. Given the group in house though that didn’t mean much. This group specialized in military technology and given the few things she had seen and the names of the companies with large demonstration booths this could have been something new.

She still half expected to see someone run up to collect the item. Unna looked across the parking lot to the retention pond and briefly considered pitching the thing into the lake. Here she was, Friday morning, sore, bruised and bloody, her load of plants scattered on the side of the walkway, no chance of help near by and four locked doors between herself and lost and found. Unna checked her knees finding one bleeding badly and the other already swelling. Her neck was killing her and with a shake of her head she acknowledged that regardless, she was going home for the day. She was hoping to finish out her day and time working at the hotel, go home to a nice frosty beverage, put her feet up and spend three days recovering and relaxing before going back to her normal job. Now she was going to have to make a report, go to the ER, fill out the paperwork for the lost and found item and spend the weekend groaning in bed and not getting any real rest. Adding insult to injury this was the one area of the parking lot that there were no cameras, so she knew that this meant a two hour debrief with the security managers before she went to Centacare.

With a sigh Unna hefted the ball and pulled herself up by the handle of the cart. Though half the palms had fallen off it was still stuck enough that it never budged even as she put her full weight on it. She knew she’d never make it up the hill and around the front of the building in her condition and decided to head around the pool and to the cafe and have them call someone over to help her and clean up the mess. They didn’t open until eight, but she knew there were chairs and maybe CG knew who this accursed ball belonged to.

With that she shuffled off. And shuffled was the word. It had taken her only two minutes total walking time to get to the crash area, but ten minutes later she was just reaching the gate to the cafe seating area. By this point she was sweating, shaking and breathing heavily. If she didn’t sit down soon she honestly thought she was going to pass out. Amazingly everyone but CG had left the area. Without her cart she made almost no noise and it appeared as though he didn’t notice her approach. The chair across from him at the wooden table was pulled out and she gratefully sank into it, the ball resting on her lap. CG didn’t immediately look up and she took a moment to collect herself. The ball, now on her lap, was starting to vibrate so she had to use most of her remaining strength to keep it from falling on the ground.

In that moment CG looked up over the top of his screens. At first the look on his face was one of annoyance, as though he was about to tell her off. The second he recognized her however his look instantly turned to one of concern. Unna knew that she probably looked like shit but figured it wasn’t as bad as the look on his face implied.

“Dear God, what happed? Are you all rite?” He actually closed his computers so that he could see her more clearly.

“I had a bit of trouble with my cart on the way to the front and took a tumble. I hope you don’t mind me invading your space until I can make it to security.” She even managed a half smile, though she swayed a bit in her seat.

“Of course, do you want me to call someone? You look like you need some medical attention.” His brows furrowed as he looked her over.

“I’m fine for now. I just need to rest for a minute.” Minor sway. “Can I ask you a strange question?”

“Of course.” Though he did give her an odd look, like he was contemplating her sanity.

“While I was walking I ended up tripping over this ball thing. I think it might belong to someone here and I was wondering if you might now who it belongs to?” _So I can sic Adam in security on them and sue the pants off the guys_.

“A...ball?” He gave her a strange look. “What kind of ball?” He leaned over to fiddle with his boxes under the table though he never broke eye contact with her.

”I have it here. I brought it with me rather than leave it on the side of the walkway.” Unna turned slightly sideways in the chair as suddenly she didn’t seem to have the strength to lift the thing. CG nearly fell out of his chair as he rapidly stood up, knocking one of his cases over, the lid popping off and revealing an empty box as it skidded across the bricks. He was obviously interested in the thing as Unna had never seen him leave his chair, even to place a food order.

As CG kneeled in front of her Unna herself looked down at the ball in her lap. Except, it wasn’t exactly a ball anymore. Somehow while she had been talking to CG the ball had begun to change shape. It seemed to be _melting_, the semi-liquid substance had managed to flow over her hands and under the cuffs of her selves. What was left of the ball had shrunk to less than half it’s size and now that Unna was paying attention she could feel the thing moving up her arms, nearly to her shoulders.

CG was looking at her and saying something but Unna couldn’t really hear him. She tried to ask him what was happening but the words felt like cotton in her mouth. A moment later her vision went black and she passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, more to come soon I hope. Please comment.

_Don’t fall over, don’t fall over, don’t fall SHIT!_

  
Edi hadn’t yet covered enough of Unnas’ form to take over for her and keep them both upright once she passed out. Thankfully Dr. Capulet managed to catch them.   
  
Mostly. 

  
As they pitched forward the doctor grabbed Unnas’ left arm and they partially slumped over his shoulder. Before Edi could stop their fall, Unnas’ glasses slipped off her nose and clattered onto the ground.

  
As Dr. Capulet straightened Edi and Unna in the chair Edi quickly spread his form over Unnas’ body enough that he could keep her upright. For that moment it was enough. He would complete the bonding process later on their way back to the base. Right now he concentrated on keeping the woman supporting him alive while trying to deal with the frantic man in front of him.

  
”What in the name of God were you thinking, going off on your own like that?! She was here all week, you had more than enough time to tell me Unna was yours! We could have avoided this.” Though his voice was low in volume the venom dripping from it was chilling.

  
_If you had ever read your email you would have know damn well_.   
  
Edi really didn’t want to deal with this now, and in this place, bound to be full of people in only a few minutes. “What’s done is done. Let’s get out of here, you can lecture me once we’re back on base.” Slowly, carefully, Edi manipulated Unnas’ arms and legs to tentatively stand.

  
A shocked expression on his face, Dr. Capulet began packing his computers and stacking his cases to be wheeled to the car. As Edi waited, he bent gently to pick up the lost glasses. The delicate purple frames were intact but the lenses were scratched to the point of uselessness, he could tell from what little clear space that was left that the new woman in his life was all but blind. She would need replacements for them, along with her clothes.

  
In a few moments Dr. Capulet had stacked his cases and was rolling them out to the car. Edi had known that they weren’t staying at the hotel where they spent their days. Over the last week the schedule of hotel, to car, to convention, to car and back to hotel had repeated so often he had memorized the turns in the roads along the way. As they followed the same path he had followed Unna down earlier he spied her cart with its plants still scattered on the ground. Surprisingly, the doctor opened the back of the same SUV that Unna had tried to avoid earlier. Edi didn’t know wether to be thankful for this; as it had caused Unna to pause long enough for him to ketch up, or annoyed that his poor parking had in part lead to Unna being injured. He mentally filed that away for later.  
While the doctor loaded the trunk Edi settled in the back seat. He noticed the doctors suitcase was on the seat beside him. Edi had overheard Unnas’ earlier conversation. 

  
_Leaving tomorrow my ass._   
  


Edi didn’t know what Dr. Capulet was planning, but his decision to break out of his case seemed more and more justified by the moment. As the doctor started the vehicle Edi noticed movement by the crashed cart. While the vehicle pulled out of the space and speed off, an older man began to call Unnas’ name.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gets NSFW if you squint really hard.

“Will this traffic never end!” Dr. Capulet gritted through his teeth.

  
They had been driving for over an hour and had only managed a few miles. A few quick phone calls had secured a private jet from the smaller airport in Orlando’s center. While the airport was just over twenty miles away the traffic on the interstate was at a near standstill. They could have walked there faster at this rate. Edi stared out the window at a sign reading ‘Disney Casting’, whatever that meant, and he turned his attention back to Unna.

  
While on base internet access was very restricted. Everything was monitored and every search had to be pre approved. One of the main reasons Edi had volunteered for this mission was to gain that unrestricted, unlimited access inherent to off base missions. Music, news, most of the videos on a site called ‘youtube’; anything he could download he did. His squadron rarely received news or entertainment and the unspoken rule was that if anyone went out that they would glean as much information to share as possible. The fact that he was capable of storing all of this data in his own mind to share privately later was a great advantage. He had used this ability over the past week to research Unna.

  
Edi had suspected that he could bond with Unna the first time her voice had filtered through the confines of the battery case he had been contained in. While he had yearned to contact her there and then and had sent a communication to the doctor, he decided that since he would be in the area for several days and she would be back that he would use his unrestricted internet access to his advantage. Possessing a literal computer for a brain, he had hacked the convention centers computer system and downloaded her files. While there wasn’t much information it did give him a starting point. This hack also gave him access to the internal security system and all the cameras.

  
While he watched Unna during the day, he spent the evenings scouring the internet for anything he could find on her. He discovered surprisingly little. Another job, an apartment, a cellular phone, an Amazon Prime account and a single credit card. Some details from a local college and a few local clubs and organizations but almost nothing before her first day of classes. There was a high school record, but the school listed didn’t seem to exist and her social security number likewise contained nothing before her eighteenth birthday.

  
As he sat in the vehicle he searched through her pockets for any additional information. The pack around her waist contained some rather strange tools in his opinion, cutters of several kinds, a small shovel, alcohol swabs, a pair of tinted glasses (which he put on) and a few dollars. Her back pockets contained her wallet and a pill container. These were more interesting. The wallet was remarkably empty. Beyond an I.D., credit card, bank card and some cash the only other item was a business card. This was for a U.S. Marshal. A quick search didn’t reveal much. The pill box was far more confusing. The seven compartments were all filled with various pills and capsules. Of the sixty odd pills in the small case only three appeared to be consistent across the compartments. Thankfully with the doctor available he skipped over these as well. In the front of her pants were two sets of pockets, a lower set of cargo pockets with a bottle of water in each that he had observed earlier. In the upper set was a cellphone that was connected to her watch and a compact portable hard drive.

  
The mystery surrounding the woman continued to deepen.

  
What were all these pills for, why was there so little information on her, what was on the drive. Edi had to carefully consider his options. While he had been searching the traffic had started to move. Once on the plane he would loose internet access completely until they arrived at the base and the phone would be confiscated once they landed. The drive he could hide, they couldn’t exactly wand them down for metal, and the pills could be considered necessary until he learned what they were for and how they affected her. In his mind he had two options, use Unnas phone to covertly send word to the base without the doctor knowing or conduct more research on the pills and business card.

  
There were going to be questions either way. He was going to have to come clean about running after Unna unassisted eventually; a harsh offense combining outing himself, desertion of his chaperone, failure to follow the orders of his superior, assault, the list went on. He knew that he was going to pay for that, however having Unna made anything that may come of his transgressions seem worth it. He also had a sneaking suspicion that what had occurred over the past week wasn’t exactly within mission parameters.  
Grudgingly Edi connected to the cell phone in his hand, hiding the screen from Dr. Capulet as he drove. Everyone leaving knew of the restricted number to call in the event something went wrong off base. Once the phone connected and the line beeped twice Edi entered his private code. Two more beeps and he received an authentication code and text number. He hung up from the call and sent a brief text. 

  
One of Doctor Capulets’ calls had been to the base to let them know of the change of plans and what to expect when they landed. he had been terse and Edi himself had stayed quiet. The doctor had left out many details, but as the line was unsecure, Edi couldn’t blame him.

  
Edi briefly described that he had found his Charge, she was injured but stable and they were returning directly. He reffrenced the business card, requesting more information, summarized how he found her and his concerns about the doctors behavior before sending. He took a few extra seconds to clone the information on the phone to his memory and turned on the airplane mode. By this point they were pulling into the airport.

  
A larger privet jet stood waiting. As Dr. Capulet unloaded the SUV and spoke with a waiting man about the vehicle Edi boarded the plane. Several seats, couches and tables were in front with a small bedroom in the rear. As he walked to the back room he was blocked by a steward. The only indication that this wasn’t a truly private flight was the Air Force pin on the otherwise civilian uniform he wore.

  
“We’ll be departing in a few minutes ma’am, would you like something to eat or drink once we take off?” The man asked lightly.  
Edi thought for a moment. Unna hadn’t woken or even stirred. While he could make her eat he wanted to stay as far away from the doctor as possible. The man had always given him an odd vibe that he simply couldn’t place. He decided that between the blood loss, other injuries and supporting him that his Charge would need something on the long flight. He briefly looked out one of the windows and saw the doctor arguing with one of the crew and decided to take advantage of the delay.

  
”I’ll take a few waters and something to eat now please.” He said casually.

  
”Uh..uhh, of course, right away.” The man said timidly as he took a few steps back into a galley area.

  
Edi thought for a moment and wondered what had caused the sudden change in his attitude. He turned and caught his reflection in a mirror on the back of the cockpit door and realized why the airman had been thrown. Unna was standing there; pale, bloody, clothes torn and grubby. Her eyes were closed, though hidden behind the relatively dark lenses, and her lips didn’t move when Edi spoke. The only indication that he himself was there was a few sensors poking above what remained of her shirt collar. Considering that there was no way the young man could have any knowledge of what he was, things must have seemed strange indeed. Especially with his deep baritone voice.

  
While Edi couldn’t do much for the moment he did hit upon an idea. Edi looked into the mirror taking off the sunglasses he formed a new pair of glasses for Unna. Instead of clear lenses he projected and image of her eyes onto the front to give the appearance that she was awake and looking around. That done he turned back to the suddenly quiet galley.

  
The airman stood there staring at him. On a tray were two bottles of water, some chips, a fruit cup and some sandwiches. Edi smiled, reminding himself to make Unna smile as well.

  
“That’s fine thank you, please make sure I’m not disturbed until we land.” He said as he reached forward and took the tray. The man looked slightly better in this interaction, though it seemed that Edis’ voice still unnerved him. Taking the tray he headed into the back bedroom, setting it down for later just as Dr. Capulet stepped into the main cabin.

  
”Edi there you are, we need to talk, we have much to review before we return to base.” The doctor grunted as he attempted to drag all of his belongings onto the plane at once, toppling everything on the floor as he rounded the bulkhead. As his items went flying so did he, landing in a heap on his luggage.

  
Edi didn’t like the tone he had used. While he knew the doctor wouldn’t do too much in front of the airman attempting to assist him off the floor, the separate room could turn into a secure enough area for physical exams and questioning, neither of which Edi was prepared to do with Unna still out of it.

  
“At this point I think you have your hands full. You know as much about her as I do. That and you don’t have any of your equipment here. I think you can wait until after we return to base and debrief.” Edi then turned and shut the door behind him, thumbing the lock. Amazingly the door had a second lock that couldn’t be opened from the outside. Edi turned that as well and sat down on the bed.  
Now that he was alone he could finally have a good look at his new Charge. There was another mirror on the back of the door and a small bathroom behind the bed. As the plane began to taxi Edi tucked into the food, chewing slowly as he looked Unna over in the mirror. Once the plane leveled off and Edi had finished everything he decided he wanted a better look at Unnas injuries. He rifled through a small cabinet and found toiletries and towels. Amazingly no one had yet disturbed him. Edi was somewhat surprised that Dr. Capulet hadn’t grilled him with questions in the car on the way to the airport. The man was rabid about data of any kind, so a lack of questioning was out of character for him. Edi put himself briefly against the door. Beyond furious keyboard tapping he heard little else.

With that he set about removing Unnas ruined clothes. Shoes, socks, shirt and pants came off. The last two were all but ruined, he threw them into the corner to deal with later. Beneath those he paused. He had never seen women’s undergarments before. Around her breasts was a silky, tighter fitting black bra that clasped in the front and blue low cut cotton panties. Edi had spread himself beneath the garments and rather liked the feel of them sliding against his form. He had spread himself over most of her body in order to move her and so had not yet seen anything that hadn’t already been exposed beyond her uniform. Now he sat them down to begin his inspection. Her chin was well bruised but not bleeding thankfully. She had one tender bruise on her forearm, but otherwise seemed alright. Finally he moved his form up to expose her feet and lower legs up to just above her knees.

What he saw made him fall off the bed.

He was expecting there to be damage to her knees, he had seen the blood and damage to her clothes, he had seen her hit the cart on the way down and heard the ominous thunk of mussel and bone against metal, but none of that explained what he saw. Long and short scars, some jagged and raised, others smooth and subtle. All throughout the areas between was discolored and bubbled, as though the skin had been melted. Her toes were short and misshapen and most of the nails were missing. 

  
He’d never felt sick before but now he honestly believed he would cause Unna to loose the lunch he had just helped her eat.   
He was scared to see the rest of her, though he knew he had too. Slowly he picked Unna off the floor and sat her back on the bed. Then with great trepidation he removed her bra and exposed her chest. Here things were arguably worse. A long scar ran from just below where her collar was down to her navel. Again a mixture of jagged and smooth scars crisscrossed her body with the melted look in between. The major difference was beneath where her bra had lain. There a floral pattern seemed to be branded into her breasts, dipping deeper than the bra he had just removed. The scars continued down her arms nearly to her elbows, right to where her sleeves had stopped. As he took a closer look at her forearms and hands he noticed much finer scars racing up and down with slightly more noticeable ones between her fingers. Here though there were no melt marks or raised scars. How he had missed these he didn’t know. Turning her around on the bed he moved himself so he could see over her shoulder. Her back was absolutely mangled. Worse than the rest up to her hairline but still with the same types of marks.  
Unbidden a memory from years before flashed in his mind. The reason Dr. Capulet had looked to him to come on this mission. One day, years before, he had suddenly been wracked with pain out of the blue. Nothing to indicate why or the cause. It had continued off and on for months, leaving him comatose for weeks on end. Since then the doctor was constantly testing him and collecting and analyzing data to try and determine what had happened. He suddenly had a sinking suspicion these scars had something to do with that event.  
Edi took a few deep breaths to collect himself. All of the medicines in her pocket now made more sense. The lack of background as well. Something had happened to make her abandon her past, something that had left her scarred and scared enough to leave her old life behind.   
Though he didn’t have one, that moment his heart ached for her.  
He couldn’t imagine what she had gone through and was aching to find out. He was now mentally kicking himself for not looking up those pills while he had the chance. He was half tempted to swallow his pride and ask the doctor for assistance. However, Unna still hadn’t stirred and this worried him. Her heart rate and breathing were fine and a final look in the mirror confirmed that her color was better. He knew from watching her that she had been working hard for at least the past week. Edi decided to let her sleep while she could as he knew things would be very hectic once they returned to base between debriefing, intake and the billion questions and tests Dr. Capulet would subject them to once he had all of his equipment available.  
Steeling his nerves he rose and went to wash up. The bathroom was small and cramped but had enough room to towel off. He had managed to heal her wounds enough to stop the bleeding though the edges stood out even among the older scars. Eventually these new wounds would disappear, but something about the old wounds made him think they would not go so easialy.That done he returned to the bed. Edi would have little to do but worry over the next few hours to the base. He again looked at the few items scattered across the sheets. The two things he hadn’t yet examined were the phone and the mysterious hard drive. He knew he would loose the phone soon, so started there.   
The fingerprint lock was handy, even without internet access (he didn’t trust the onboard WiFi) it was still useful, though strangely there were almost no data on it. A VPN app, Fitbit, Uber and a time clock app were the only non standard items on the device. In fact the phone itself had only been activated two days prior.   
Curious.  
Her email was far more enlightening to an extent. Separated into five folders marked Floral, Hotel, Personal, Spam and Medical. She had downloaded only a few of the emails for the first three, most seemed to be concerned with business and app setups, with the spam folder being empty. While these were opened with fingerprint scans the last required a typed password that her fingerprint couldn’t open.   
Interesting.  
While he couldn’t decrypt the data, he could see that the folder contained a single email with a very large attachment. Whatever it was had been received that morning less than an hour before he had made contact with her. Unna had downloaded it along with the data from the Fitbit app to the portable hard drive that now sat next to them. Knowing he could learn no more from the phone he turned it off and put it, along with nearly everything else, on the shelf next to the bed. Taking the drive he molded his form into a USB connector and jacked into the drive. Again the files inside were incripted. Eventually he could decrypt it, but it would take him far more time then he had at the moment. What he could tell was that there was a single program on the drive along with thousands of files. The drive seemed familiar in a strange way, though he couldnt place it. Obviously custom, it was slightly longer than her phone and nearly two inches thick. Containing several terabytes of available memory, whatever was on the thing had to be incrediably complex and important to his Charge if she valued it enough to keep it on her person.

  
Disconnecting himself from the device he decided to hide it under the beds pillow until they were closer to landing.  
That done he contemplated sleep. Even he needed rest and there were at lease another three hours until they landed. He again checked the locks on the door and listened to the sounds beyond. He heard the steward speaking with the pilot and copilot toward the front of the plane and the doctor still typing in the main cabin. Turning back he spied Unnas ruined uniform on the floor. Edis’ form could cover Unnas’ entire body from the neck down if he wanted and while he would have no issue walking around the base with Unna dressed as such he knew it was frowned upon, especially in unsecured areas, and he had no idea as to where the plane would taxi. He picked up the discarded garments and held them up. Grudgingly he let them drop back to the floor. Edi knew he would be in enough trouble and stepping off the plane in a ripped and bloody uniform that barely covered would be arguable worse than walking off with nothing. 

  
Edi briefly scanned the interior of the small room. He had searched through the cabinets to no avail. He returned to the bathroom to see if its cabinets held anything and spied something in the mirror. There on the floor, poking out from under the sheets was a small suitcase. Tentatively reaching down he pulled it onto the bed. Slightly dusty, the bag looked as though it had been there for some time. While Edi didn’t have much hope, he would take anything at this point. 

  
Edi stood and emptied the bag. Inside was a knee length embroidered purple shirt, matching loose fitting pants, a large purple scarf and a pair of shoes of a style Edi had never seen before. Picking up one of the velvet covered soles he inspected them thouroughly. The two inch pointed heels seemed incapable of supporting anything more than a few pounds of pressure, and the toes appeared more suited to fit onto a jets nose than a humans foot. Setting those back he searched the rest of the bag, finding nothing. Laying out the strange pieces on the bed Edi inspected them. The fact that they were obviously not a uniform made him pause. Edi knew the value of a good first impression and nearly a third of the base would undoubtably be there to great them. Her uniform might have been some strange mix between combat and training standard, but it was a uniform nonetheless. 

  
This was anything but a uniform. 

  
As Edi had been watching Unna he had been observing the other people around her. Some had been wearing items simmilar to the one before him but these were somehow different; heavier, more detailed, cut differently. Edi was no judge of women’s clothing beyond uniforms. He knew he couldn’t tell the diference between elegant and inappropriate if his life depended on it. This outfit somehow called to him, spoke to him of some kind of rank and status that he didn’t understand. Best of all when he held it up against Unnas body, it appeared to fit.

  
That settled he placed the items on the foot of the bed and shut the small window shades intending on a few hours rest. Tucking them into the small bed he took one last look at the lock before turning off the light. 


End file.
